Forest City Delays Pacific Park Brooklyn Over Real Estate Market Woes

Forest City Realty Trust suffered a net loss of $430.9 million for the three months ended September 30, 2016, mainly because of the Pacific Park mega-project.

The loss includes "an impairment of non-depreciable real estate of $307.6 million, primarily related to Pacific Park Brooklyn," FCR reports. (This is the Atlantic Yards project near Atlantic Terminal Mall.)

The company decided to revise the overall project schedule to "delay future vertical development."

Forest City blamed negative market conditions and timing. These include "the impact of increased apartment supply, uncertainty surrounding 421A tax abatement and continued escalation in construction and trade costs," the company said.

Three properties at Pacific Park Brooklyn that are part of the company's partnership with Greenland USA are still under construction:

• 535 Carlton, a 298-unit, all-affordable apartment community, is expected to begin phased opening in the fourth quarter of 2016.
  
• 550 Vanderbilt, a 278-unit condominium property, is expected to begin phased opening in the first quarter of 2017.
  
• 38 Sixth Avenue, a 303-unit, all-affordable apartment community with 6,000 feet of street-level retail, is expected to begin phased opening in the second quarter of 2017

Additional insight at Atlantic Yards /Pacific Park Report.

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Protest at Atlantic Terminal Mall in Brooklyn for Tyre King

#PeoplesMonday telling people in Atlantic Terminal mall about #TyreKing! #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/zwBXqktU7E

— Ash J (@AshAgony) October 4, 2016

Monday night, #PeoplesMonday demonstrated in Atlantic Terminal mall and shut down Flatbush and Atlantic avenues for Tyre King, a 13-year-old boy wanted for questioning in an armed robbery in Columbus, Ohio last week who ended up fatally shot by a police officer.

#PeoplesMonday shutting it down in Brooklyn for #TyreKing! Lots of NYPD following. #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/Gnz65pe9VT

— Ash J (@AshAgony) October 4, 2016

The boy was thought to be running away from a police officer when he was shot, but medical evidence is not yet complete.



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L Train Trouble; Brooklyn Bridge Park Lawsuit Update; Nude Melania Trump and More Brooklyn Briefs

Join us for the 84th Pct. #NationalNightOut. Tuesday in Brooklyn Bridge Park at the BBQ area near the marina. 5-8PM pic.twitter.com/6RAqnUZ3iG

— NYPD 84th Precinct (@NYPD84Pct) August 1, 2016

- Yep. The NY Post went and published nude photos of Melania Trump on its cover and inside pages. [The Hill]

- Fresh mischief: Brooklyn Bridge Park seeks to move Pier 6 lawsuit from Manhattan to Brooklyn court. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Atlantic Yards/ Pacific Park report outs the "vapid" Instagram blogger who gushes over 550 Vanderbilt -- another paid promotion by Berlin Rosen. [Atlantic Yards/ Pacific Park]

- It appears that the MTA, NYC and NYS have a lot of planning to do before the L train shuts down and communications does not look all that good. [Politico]

- The 20 best Brooklyn albums this year so far. [BK]

- DUMBO’s First Thursday Gallery Walk, August 4^th from 6 to 9 p.m.,includes  This Land is Your Land,a series of videos projected onto the Manhattan Bridge. [Art in DUMBO]

- Retired Marine Gen. John Allen, who spoke at DNC, says electing Donald Trump could result in ‘civil military crisis.' [Daily News]

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Brad Lander's Gowanus Plan; BQX Meeting Tonight; and More Brooklyn Briefs

A new citizen humbly asks two women passing by, who happen to be federal judges, to take his pic outside courthouse. pic.twitter.com/Gl1mLeDYTh

— John Marzulli (@marzullij) June 17, 2016

In Cadman Plaza Park, Downtown Brooklyn ...

-  Uh oh: Without public announcement, Councilman Brad Lander "stepping up" Gowanus community planning process. [PMFA]

- Meeting at St. Francis in Brooklyn Heights tonight to discuss the proposed Brooklyn-Queens Connector (“BQX”) streetcar. [BHB]

- MTA to extend R train shuttle. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Tucker Reed, the president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and a champion of Atlantic Yards, will leave his post in August after four years. [Atlantic Yards/ Pacific Park]

- A rally was held Saturday in honor of a murdered Brooklyn teenage girl days after an arrest in the decade-long cold case. [NY1]

- Brownsville residents seek answers after mentally ill ex-convict is fatally shot. [NY Times]

- Have you seen this perv? Cops released a photo Saturday of a creep they say groped a 13-year-old girl in Brighton Beach. [Daily News]

- Judge considers controversial Brooklyn CB9 rezoning case. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Cops are turning to the public for help in locating a 21-year-old man who went missing from Bay Ridge this week. [Bensonhurst Bean]

 - Cheeto fans object to Donald Trump's new nickname, #CheetoJesus, calling it an "unforgivable, mean-spirited attack on Cheetos." [Twitter]

#DonaldTrump Some fine artist finally came up with what I believe is the very best #CheetoJesus ... no idea how. pic.twitter.com/Ss0BAun4C9

— John Moffitt (@JohnRMoffitt) June 19, 2016

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New Middle Schools Coming to Atlantic Yards / Pacific Park and DUMBO

Courtesy Marvel Architects

Brooklyn's School District 13  (Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, Brooklyn Heights, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill and north Park Slope) is finally getting some help with its middle school crisis.

New York City Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña unexpectedly announced at a Chamber event on Thursday that a 600-seat district-level middle school is headed to Prospect Heights, at a site in the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park. (Rendering above.)

According to the Brooklyn Eagle, parents and officials have been pushing for M.S. OneBrooklyn middle school for more than a year. The city originally planned to put an elementary school there, with a small middle school attached.

Also in District 13, DUMBO’s Dock Street middle school (dubbed The Dock Street School for STEAM Studies)  will open Sept. 2016. With a capacity of over 300 students, Dock Street will be an expanded and revamped M.S. 313 (Satellite West), currently housed in P.S. 307 in Vinegar Hill. Satellite West currently serves under 100 students.

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SantaCon Survival Guide; Brooklyn Heights Library Approval; and More Brooklyn Briefs

Scaffolding goes up around 75 Henry St. in Brooklyn Heights. Photo: MK Metz

 - The official 2015 SantaCon expert survival guide. [Brokelyn]

- After Levin obtained concessions, City Council committee approves Brooklyn Heights Library/ condo proposal. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Gravesend senior fatally shot at Sunset Park Popeyes. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- Neighbors to fight 40-story tower proposed for Pineapple Walk in Brooklyn Heights. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Brooklyn psychologist is one of few who understands the mind of a terrorist... [Pix11]

- Snickers or Milky Way? Crazed attacker jabbed a partially-eaten chocolate bar into the face of a 33-year-old Brooklyn artist waiting for a subway in Times Square. [Daily News]

- Eric Garner’s daughter is mulling a run for Congress against Rep. Dan Donovan. [NY Post]

- Children of Brooklyn man who pleaded guilty to stabbing their mom to death disown their 'monster' father. [Daily News]

- A first look at the Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park school building. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Tishman Construction, one of the largest construction companies in New York City, has agreed to pay more than $20 million in fines. [CBS]


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Goats in Red Hook; DUMBO Group Slams P.S. 8 Plan, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Cop fired and missed at a suspect that fled on foot on Ave. B and E 92nd St. #Brooklyn pic.twitter.com/0vh6iEjC42

— Andy Mai (@MaiAndy) December 2, 2015

Officers fire at suspect in East Flatbush Tuesday night. [cbs]

- Red Hook’s working waterfront, home to boats … and goats. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- After school tension in Downtown Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Ink]

- Greenland nixes future pre-fab buildings at Brooklyn site; Forest City warns of layoffs at modular plant. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Brooklyn residents will have an opportunity to speak directly with Comptroller Scott Stringer at a town hall on Thursday, Dec. 3. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The popular Brooklyn pizza joint Franny's will add a 3 percent surcharge to all of its checks in order to, according to the menu, cover affordable care costs. [Grubstream]

- DUMBO neighborhood group slams P.S. 8, P.S. 307 rezoning plan. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- "The people who support Trump don't support him because they want the country to get better ... They want someone to represent their inner thug, their inner asshole." [WYDNKBYANM]

- Video: Investigators reveal a computer glitch brought down AirAsia flight off the coast of Indonesia. [abc]


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Ratner's 'Site 5' To Be Brooklyn's Time Warner Center?

Courtesy Pacific Park

According to Bisnow, Forest City Ratner's EVP Kathryn Welch says FCR is getting ready to break ground on its "Site 5" project in Downtown Brooklyn. Site 5 is currently the home of Modell's and P.C. Richard.

The plans call for 1.6M square feet of office and retail space.

Welch said the goal will be "to bring in high-end retail like Brooklyn's never seen—something like the Time Warner Center."

Atlantic Yards Report speculates:
"If that report is correct--and we don't know that it is--that would shift the entire square footage once planned for B1 to Site 5, making an enormous--and to my eyeball, unrealistic--building. (The City Point project in Downtown Brooklyn near Junior's is 1.9 million square feet.)"

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Diane Ravitch Speaks in Brooklyn Heights Tonight, and More Brooklyn Briefs

Grace Chorale will be performing J.S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio Dec. 18 & 20 in Brooklyn Heights.

- Despite EPA warning him not to, Christopher Swain swam the entire 1.8 mile length of the Gowanus Canal on Saturday. [PMFA]

- Education expert and author Diane Ravitch, 'Reign of Error' author, to speak at Brooklyn Heights Library benefit tonight. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Photos: Smorgasburg and Brooklyn Flea invade Industry City. [Brownstoner]

- Father of young boy was fatally shot in broad daylight in East New York. [PIX11]

- A man fell between the slats of a subway track up to his chest — and was then struck by an D train on Saturday. [NY Daily News]

- New Boerum Hill townhouse asks $7.5M. [Curbed]

- Spooktacular! Halloween listings for Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Marketing 550 Vanderbilt condos "with deception." [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Mobile food pantry comes to Farragut, Ingersoll and Whitman Houses. [BKReader]

- The history of the "Society to Prevent Disparaging Remarks about Brooklyn." [WNYC]

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Why Brooklyn's Pacific Park Won't Actually Be a Park

Pacific Park, Brooklyn

Atlantic Yards Report had created an excellent in-depth analysis of why ballyhooed Pacific Park, the privately managed open space being planned for Atlantic Yards' Pacific Heights 14-tower mega-development, won't actually be a "park," despite the rhetoric of developer Greenland Forest City Partners.

The whole article is worth reading through, but here are a few points:

* The promised central promenade won't appear for years, and the open space won't be done until 2025

* Strip away the buildings, and the space resembles a spine with some squiggly vertebrae

* The green will abut construction sites for the next decade

* The "main lawn" is tiny, little more than one-third an acre

* The amount of open space is well below the city average for the population around it.

* The street trees pictured do not resemble the actual plan. Many won't actually be there at all.

Read more at:
"Just like a normal accessible park"? Misleading rhetoric and incomplete information behind the (inadequate) Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park open space [Atlantic Yards Report]


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NYC Homicides Up; New Atlantic Yards School; TSA Fails Big Time and More Briefs

 - Oh oh: “We’re struggling with homicides and shootings,” said NYPD's Chief of Department on Monday. “As we expect when warm weather comes, we see an increase in certain crimes.” [Daily News]

- Video: An out-of-control vehicle barreled onto a sidewalk in Brooklyn Monday afternoon, knocking down a small boy and hurting an adult. [NBC]

- Wednesday: Hearing about the new school planned for the Atlantic Yards area. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Nightmare landlord: A Brooklyn landlord was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison on Monday for killing one of his tenants and attacking another. [Daily News]

- Tonight: Save the View town hall in Brooklyn Heights to discuss the Brooklyn Bridge Park Pierhouse lawsuit. [McBrooklyn]

- A tunnel boring machine has completed the excavation of a new, $250 million water tunnel connecting Brooklyn to Staten Island. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- The long-simmering animosity between Gov. Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio flared after the mayor hired a former Cuomo aide as his press secretary, a move the governor viewed as a betrayal. [Daily News]

- Major fail: TSA lets fake bombs, weapons through at America's busiest airports 95% of the time.  [ABCnews]


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Homeland Security Asks Brooklyn's Help Fighting Terrorism; Uber to the L Train Rescue; and More Brooklyn Briefs

This creep stole a Brooklyn mom's Mother's Day gift. Story: CBS (Photo:NYPD)

- Department of Homeland Security head Johnson asks Brooklyn groups for help fighting home-grown terrorism, reports the Brooklyn Eagle.

- A Brooklyn politician was punched in the face at a Greenpoint bar defending a barmaid, says Gothamist.

- Atlantic Yards Report mulls over the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership's "college town" agenda -- amenities for students and schools, or development rights?

- Uber slashes rides to $2.75 for final weekends of L train closure, according to the Brooklyn Eagle.

- Brownstoner looks at TV locations in Brooklyn: The Americans, The Knick, Blacklist, and more.

- Some Brooklyn transplants are doing the unthinkable -– moving back to Manhattan in search of a better real estate deal, according to TRD.

- Jealous Staten Island man kills his ex-girlfriend's Brooklyn boyfriend, reports SIlive.

- Jade Helm: A Pentagon training exercise is sparking controversy with conspiracy theories claiming it's a secret plot to impose military rule in Texas, using closed Walmart stores, according to The Hill.

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Brooklyn's Van Gogh Look-Alike; Forever 21 to Fulton Street; No Charges for Borough Hall Shooter; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- The retired correction officer who shot and killed a man at Brooklyn's Borough Hall subway station will not face charges, reports 7online.

- Police officer dies in a motorcycle crash in Brooklyn -- struck by an NYPD School Safety Agent, reports Yeshiva World.

- The Atlantic Yards Report digs into which pols and parties are getting donations from mega-developer Bruce Ratner.

- Brooklyn man who bears uncanny resemblance to Van Gogh sparks internet commotion, says PIX11.

- Forever 21 is returning to Downtown Brooklyn, taking a spot on Fulton Street, says the Wall Street Journal.

- Curbed reveals everything you might ever want to know about what will soon be Brooklyn's tallest residential tower.

- Joseph Lentol, in an opinion piece in the Brooklyn Eagle, pushes de Blasio to give the people the park they were promised -- Bushwick Inlet Park.

- The Brooklyn native who invented DSL, bringing high-speed Internet service to millions of households, has died, the NY Times reports.

- Food festival Smorgasburg is coming to Coney Island this summer, says Bensonhurst Bean.

- Look out Wall Street: there's a new white-collar cop in Brooklyn. Bloomberg/Chicago Tribune

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Swimming in the Toxic Gowanus Canal, and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn Film Festival coming next month to Brooklyn Heights, Sunset Park and Bay Ridge. [BFF]

- Cops increase their presence at Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 2 since last week's gunfire. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Woman, 21, hangs herself from Brooklyn fire escape in suicide. [NY Daily News]

- OMG: Activist to swim the toxic Gowanus Canal on Earth Day. [Newsweek]

- And another thing that shouldn't be in the Gowanus, but is. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Greenland USA, the subsidiary that owns 70% of Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, doesn't even have a website, though it pretends to. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- A developer could get its hands on Bushwick Inlet Park, if CitiStorage has its way. [Greenpointeers]

- PHOTOS: Check out the Brooklyn Artists Ball at the Brooklyn Museum -- At one table there were replicas of the battleship USS Brooklyn that came with cannons that guests could shoot off, sending confetti into the air. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- HBO cracks down on Williamsburg bar showing pirated copy of Game of Thrones. [Village Voice]


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Four Indicted for Kidnapping 13-Year-Olds; Brooklyn Is Totally Unaffordable; and More Briefs

- Four people have been named in a 32-count indictment in connection with the 2014 kidnapping of two 13-year-old girls in Brooklyn. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Groups from oppressive countries and authoritarian regimes are among the candidates looking to acquire the Brooklyn Nets from a Russian oligarch.  [Sports Illustrated]

- Emotions ran high at a town hall meeting on illegal home conversions, a growing crisis in Bensonhurst, Bath Beach, Dyker Heights, and Bay Ridge. [Bensonhurst Bean]

- This map shows you how unaffordable it is to live in NYC. Brooklyn is the worst, of course. [Curbed]

- Pacific Park/Atlantic Yards’ first condo building, 550 Vanderbilt Avenue, will launch sales this summer. Prices will start roughly in the range of $550,000 and go all the way up to around $5,500,000. [Brownstoner]

- Boerum Hill resident Ethan Hawke’s movie “Maggie’s Plan” will be shooting on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights tomorrow and Wednesday, screwing up parking as usual. [BHB]

 - Friggin' inspirational Brooklyn guy. [WYDNKBYANM]

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Sheldon Silver's Ties to Brooklyn

Office of Sheldon Silver

Indicted New York State politician Sheldon Silver has a number of ties to Brooklyn, news sources say.

The contacts go back more than a decade -- Silver graduated ffrom Brooklyn Law School. More recently, Silver's brother, Dr. Joseph Silver, the orthopedic chief at Brooklyn's Methodist Hospital, was allegedly steering patients to him, according to the Daily News. After his brother died in 2003,Silver allegedly found another doctor to o this task.

OHEL, the Orthodox Jewish social services organization headquartered in Brooklyn, is also closely tied to him, according to the News.

OHEL bought an upstate camp  a few miles from Silver's vacation house, and named it after Silver's brother. The advisory board chair for the camp is Martin Kleinman, whose home health-care company, Americare, was fined $15 million for bogus Medicaid claims.

And continuing probes link Silver to judges who had roles in Atlantic Yards, according to Atlantic Yards Report, which quotes reports in the News and Post.

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Bad Landlord; Bad Chef; Bad Manservant; and More Brooklyn Briefs

- Brooklyn landlord gets 6 months in jail for bogus 911 calls. [Daily News]

- New Catholic ad campaign targets Brooklyn hipsters for Christmas. [IB Times]

- A chef at the ritzy Brooklyn Fare Chef's Table eatery is accused of serving the worst meat to Asian patrons and demanding they were not seated near him. [Daily Mail]

- The bad old days: When a "trusted manservant" robbed restauranteur Irving Lundy blind. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Barclays Center driving people to drink. [Nets Daily]

- Atlantic Yards Report rebuts Barclays' claims about bar business, whatever they are. [Atlantic Yards]

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'Brooklyn Strand,' Atlantic Yards, Parole Center and More Brooklyn Briefs

Con Ed's new power outage map shows exact locations.

 Shown above: Con Edison has upgraded its power outage map to show exact locations of outages, how many customers are affected at each location, and approximate time of repair. Late Sunday night into Monday morning, more than a thousand Queens residents lost power -- many are shown on this map.

- Upcoming CB2 meeting to discuss ‘Brooklyn Strand’ idea to unify parks, plazas from Borough Hall to Brooklyn Bridge Park. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Forest City Ratner seems ready to buy out former partner Skanska from its share of the shuttered module-building factory at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. [Atlantic Yards Report]

- Gowanus United, a group fighting the state’s proposed mega parole center on 2nd Avenue, is holding a rally on Wednesday afternoon. [South Brooklyn Post]

- BP Adams is encouraging students ages sixteen and over to attend a meeting in Bed-Stuy to learn about how they can join a community board in the coming year. [Gotham Gazette]

- The City Council will consider on Wednesday requiring costumed characters soliciting money to be licensed. [City Council]

- Out of public eye, Andrew Cuomo plans his vengeance. [Perdido Street School]

- More than half of calls to U.S. poison control centers about energy drinks like Red Bull and Monster are for children younger than 6. [NY Daily News]


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Brooklyn BP Adams Miffed that de Blasio, Cuomo Seem to Be Overlooking Terror Threat to Brooklyn

Photo: MK Metz

Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams feels Brooklyn was dissed  by Cuomo and de Blasio in Thursday's subway terror optics.

According to the Brooklyn Eagle:

 “I do want to express my disappointment in Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio for missing the mark today on assuring this entire city, not just those in Manhattan, that their security is a top priority,” Adams said.

Adams said the two officials' "symbolic subway rides followed the typical pattern of ignoring the impact that terror concerns have on Brooklyn and the other boroughs, which are also potentially at risk."

Brooklyn subways have been the target of a terror plan in the past.

More at the Eagle.


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Secret Brooklyn Dinner; GOP Turns Back on Grimm; and More Brooklyn Briefs

EPA has coined a word for CSO discharges into the #GowanusCanal: #poonami This is now a hash tag. @hadjalexiou @bkbrains @mithaler
— Inna Guzenfeld (@innaguzenfeld) April 30, 2014

- Thousands of guests dressed only in white will descend upon a secret location in Brooklyn with food, drink and decorations on June 28. [ediblebrooklyn]

- Robber barons: They're closing libraries and hospitals, and now they're kicking old people out of their nursing homes. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Fair-weather friends: Republican leaders shut off support to Rep. Michael Grimm. [NY Daily News]

- Montague Street R line tunnel work ahead of schedule. [NY1]

- Projected off-street parking for Atlantic Yards could be cut by thousands of spaces. [Streetsblog]

- Brooklyn Heights Association House and Garden Tour on May 10. [Brooklyn Eagle]

- Carmen Farina returns sanity to school promotion decisions. [Gotham Gazette]

- Plea for help from man claiming to be Chinese prisoner found in Saks shopping bag, and DNAinfo tracked him down. [DNAinfo]


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